Feds Will Consider Adding Bats To Endangered List

(Host)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will consider protecting two species of bats
that have been threatened by "white nose syndrome."

That's
a disease that has quickly spread through many bat species and killed more than
one million animals.

The
Wildlife Service says it will consider adding the eastern small-footed and
northern long-eared bats to its list of endangered species.

The
Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to have the two species of bats
placed under federal protection.

Mollie
Matteson is with the Center, which is based in Richmond.

Matteson
says the bats' survival might hinge on whether they're covered by the
Endangered Species Act.

(Matteson) "They will therefore receive the full
protections of the act, including greater funding for management actions to
protect them, greater scrutiny when any federal actions may affect those
species in a negative way and all the other protections that go along with
listing."

(Host) Matteson says that the Fish and Wildlife agency
will spend the next 12 months reviewing whether the two species warrant federal
protection.